Third entry in the then-popular boys' adventure series has the Rover brothers (Tom, Dick, & Sam) heading to Africa to search for their long-missing father, after a few more adventures at their upstate New York boarding school, Putnam Hall.

Despite the title, the Rover Brothers spend several chapters -- over half the book -- back East, against arch-nemeses Josiah Crabtree and the Baxter family. Formulaic fun was dated even by the 1940's when Orson Welles satirized it on the radio.